Alyson and Breht analyze current events, including the ceasefire in Gaza and its implications, the newest round of US imperialist aggression against Venezuela, Regime Change aspirations in Iran and Venezuela, the absolutely horrific state of the American economy, the AI bubble, Free Speech, ICE raids, and more.

----------------------------------------------------

Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio

Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio

Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio https://revleftradio.com/

In this episode, Alyson joins members of the Ultra-Red collective to discuss their recent trip to Central America where they learned first hand about popular education movements of the past and present. The discussion gets into the history of popular education, existing social movements in Central America today, and what we can learn from these movements in our organizing work. The journal of Ultra-Red can be found here: 

Breht went on How The Red Was Won to talk about the current state of the left, the contradictions of American trade unions, American geopolitics, and much more! From the original description: You know him. You love him. It's everyone's favorite Breht O'Shea from such fine podcasts as RevLeft Radio, The Red Menace, Shoeless in South Dakota, and more! We talk about what organizing in the USA looks like 2025 - from unions to the socialist orgs, mutual aid, resisting fascism, and raising anti-fascist kids.Part 2 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-AxFA8SnBU

For over a century, the U.S. ruling class has waged war on communists, anarchists, and radicals. From the Palmer Raids of 1919 to McCarthyism in the 1950s, from COINTELPRO in the Cold War to today’s MAGA rhetoric about “woke communists" and his crackdown on "Antifa Radicals", state repression has always sought to crush revolutionary politics before they could take root; especially in times of capitalist crisis. 

In this episode, historian Aaron J. Leonard joins us to discuss his new book Menace of Our Time: The Long War Against American Communism. We trace how the U.S. developed its arsenal of anti-radical laws and FBI surveillance programs, and how these were deployed against generations of activists, workers, and organizers. We talk about the Communist Party USA’s early growth, its leaders like William Z. Foster and Earl Browder, and its contradictory relationship with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who both advanced social reforms hated by capitalists and cracked down on communists in his time. Leonard explains how McCarthyism and COINTELPRO not only repressed communists but created a climate where the majority of Americans came to accept mass violations of civil liberties in the name of anti-communism.  As Trump and the far right recycle the language of anti-communism to justify repression in 2025, Leonard argues that knowing this history is not just an academic exercise -- it’s a weapon for the struggles ahead.

----------------------------------------------------

Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio

Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio

Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio https://revleftradio.com/

Outro Beat Prod. by flip da hood

Breht speaks with veteran organizer, revolutionary strategist, and author Eric Mann.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Mann reflects on his decades of struggle; from his early work with SNCC and SDS, through his involvement with the Weather Underground and his time as a political prisoner, to his rank-and-file organizing as a UAW autoworker. Along the way, Mann wrestles with the realities of repression and counterinsurgency, the need for disciplined cadre and a Black-led united front against imperialism, and the history of the Marxist Left in the 60's and 70's in the USA as told through his personal experiences. His story is both a living history of the U.S. Left and a revolutionary call for commitment and organization for a new generation of revolutionaries. More Biography of Eric Mann: Eric Mann (born December 4, 1942) is a civil rights, anti-war, labor, and environmental organizer. He has worked with the Congress of Racial Equality, Newark Community Union Project, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Black Panther Party, the United Automobile Workers (including eight years on auto assembly lines) and the New Directions Movement. He was also active as a leader of SDS faction the Weathermen, which later became the militant left-wing organization Weather Underground. He was arrested in September 1969 for participation in a direct action against the Harvard Center for International Affairs and sentenced to two years in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit murder after two bullets were fired through a window of the Cambridge police headquarters on November 8, 1969. He was instrumental in the movement that helped to keep a General Motors assembly plant in Van Nuys, California open for ten years. Mann has been credited for helping to shape the environmental justice movement in the U.S. He founded the Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles, California and has been its director for 25 years. In addition, Mann is founder and co-chair of the Bus Riders Union, which sued the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority for what it called “transit racism”, resulting in a precedent-setting civil rights lawsuit, Labor Community Strategy Center et al. v. MTA.

Mann is the author of books published by Beacon Press, Harper & Row and the University of California, which include Taking on General Motors; The Seven Components of Transformative Organizing Theory; and Playbook for Progressives: 16 Qualities of the Successful Organizer. He is known for his theory of transformative organizing and leadership of political movements and is acknowledged by many as an veteran organizer on the communist left.

----------------------------------------------------

Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio

Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio

Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio https://revleftradio.com/

Update and Reupload Sept. 25th: The extended family we have been supporting for over a year needs another influx of support as they try to move themselves and their stuff south, as the IOF closes in on their area.  Make a direct intervention in the lives of Palestinians enduring genocide:

Donate directly to the Rayyan family in Gaza: https://www.spotfund.com/story/c600f234-0528-4498-809b-88b76a159c9d

In 1917, Russia went from a centuries-old monarchy to the world’s first workers’ state in just eight months. From the February Revolution and the fall of the Tsar, to the July Days and the failed Kornilov coup, and finally to the decisive October insurrection, the Bolsheviks and the Soviets navigated setbacks, repression, reactionary coups, bourgeois opportunism, and unprecedented opportunities with remarkable clarity, unmatched strategy, and resolute discipline.

Breht is joined by Daniel, host of The Sickle and the Hammer: A Socialist History of the Soviet Union, to walk through the year that shook the world. Together they trace the month-to-month developments from February to October 1917, bringing new depth and insight to a revolution that toppled an empire, established the world’s first socialist state, and still looms over our present and future. Check out our episode on "What Is To Be Done" by Lenin HERE

----------------------------------------------------

Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio

Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio

Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio https://revleftradio.com/

Outro Beat Prod. by Spinitch 'Bitter Cocona'

In this episode, Breht speaks with Robert E. Wilson, author of The Football Manifesto and The Supporters Trust League Manifesto. Together they explore what it means to socialize sports; to reclaim the Beautiful Game from billionaire owners, corrupt institutions, and imperial powers, and return it to the people as a democratic, community-owned, and liberatory project.

Together, they examine the ways professional sports in the imperial core normalize colonialism, militarism, racism, and capitalism, while grassroots football worldwide has long been a site of resistance, solidarity, and struggle.

From the NFL’s “plantation economics” to the vision of supporter-owned clubs, equal pay for women’s teams, and football as a hub of political education and mutual aid, this conversation makes clear that sports are never “just games.” They are battlefields for ideology and community -- as well as an expression of our nature as social beings -- and if reclaimed, they can become engines of solidarity,healthy communities, and socialist culture. Whether you are a sports fan or not, you will get a LOT out of this fascinating and surprisingly wide-ranging conversation!

Gaia Labs HERE

Behind the Shield documentary on the NFL by Dave Zirin HERE

Black Alliance for Peace petition to ban Israel and US HERE

----------------------------------------------------

Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio

Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio

Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio https://revleftradio.com/

Outro Beat Prod. by flip da hood

Alyson and Breht critically engage with the concept of "technofeudalism" from a Marxist (and thus historical materialist) perspective, analyzing its origin and recent popularity, critiquing its depoloyment and the implication that it represents a "new mode of production", explaining related concepts like rent-seeking, discussing the role of private equity in the modern American economy, the politics of Yanis Varoufakis, and much, much more. 

Private Equity Explainer HERE

Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio

Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio

Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio: https://revleftradio.com/

Breht went onto the International Solidarity Podcast with host Ashwin! "In this latest episode, I'm joined by Breht O'Shea (who many of you will know as the host of Revolutionary Left Radio and co-host of Red Menace) for a pretty wide-ranging discussion. We talk about the state of the left in the global north amidst the Gaza genocide and its inability to effectively do something about it, we talk about broader global shifts taking place at the moment, how the rest of this century is shaping up to look like, the role of spirituality or humanism in our left politics, combatting fear, cynicism, and individualism, the case for hope, and a whole bunch more. 

Journal of International Solidarity Links

Instagram:   / journalofintlsolidarity  

Substack: https://intlsolidarity.substack.com/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JournalofIntlSolidarity